Thursday, August 27, 2009

A rich man asked a Zen master to write something down that could encourage the prosperity of his family for years to come. It would be something that the family could cherish for generations. On a large piece of paper, the master wrote, "Father dies, son dies, grandson dies."

The rich man became angry when he saw the master's work. "I asked you to write something down that could bring happiness and prosperity to my family. Why do you give me something depressing like this?"

"If your son should die before you," the master answered, "this would bring unbearable grief to your family. If your grandson should die before your son, this also would bring great sorrow. If your family, generation after generation, disappears in the order I have described, it will be the natural course of life. This is true happiness and prosperity."

Sunday, August 23, 2009

I had the good fortune to meet with a business coach who is a member of a new coaching network we are setting up locally. Our initial meeting came at the end of a set meeting that I confess had me a little bummed... while coaches are working to advise businesses, it seems that the advice - or the areas covered by many coaches - does not stretch to address anything to do with the online world, or the tools that we use online to promote and further the better outcomes of clients.

No matter, that is my area of interest, and will remain so.

Fortunately my companion emanated a ray of hope at the other side of the table and as sometimes happens, we shared a spark of recognition and quickly established some rapport. Forward to our meeting, it is clear that we share an interest in many things, and from a business point of view, perhaps the most encompassing way to describe this would be: A Values Match.

If you are networking in your business, attending meetings and workshops, and the like, I would urge you to step outside of the set functions and get together with people on a one-on-one basis to learn about the "who is" of that person. Time and again in network groups, I see things stall and invariably the question arises "why isn't this working?". To me the answer seems simple. There is not the engagement on a personal level, or a meeting of the critical issue - a desire to arrive at a common outcome between participants. Vital to discovering a point where interests converge, seems to me to require - and this is certainly true for me - a shared value system. Until you really get to know someone, you cannot know if the values of the other person is a match. Without that... there is no real way to go forward.

But back to my meeting. Meeting new people opens us up to all kinds of new learnings. I learned about a book that was important to my companion some years ago, and it seems like something that would be of particular interest to me too, since architecture and engineering are facets of life that I think we can find use for in all kinds of contexts. The structure of business, and the way that we engineer strategies to find solutions to problems that we want to overcome, is critical to a solution focus. And relate very closely to the name I chose for my coaching business, namely Design Business Engineering. If you believe that waiting for things to just happen by chance is not a very good strategy for building a successful business, then that might make sense to you too.

It also brought me to discussing NLP for the first time in a very long time. I have been a student of NLP since I took my first training in 1997 and for me now it is just an integral part of 'what I do' and I don't really bring it up as a subject in my coaching, unless clients are familiar with it. Instead I find it easier to bring to bear as and when the tools are appropriate in the context of my work with clients, which are essentially in the first instance, relating to business, but inevitably overlap with personal beliefs and strategies of the business owner client. So I confess, I chuckle to myself when I hear people refer to themselves as being a 'neuro linguistic programmer' as it seems about as useful as referring to oneself as a 'user of petrol' or an 'eater of eggs'... I do lots of things, and have lots of interests and use lots of tools. These do not, I hope, define me.

I look forward to learning more about my new colleague. I can already see some (pardon the word) synergy between us and perhaps I may begin to write some more on the topic of NLP than I have done in recent times.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

“The foolish and the dead alone never change their opinions.” ~James Russell

Yesterday I was interested to read an article about a work-from-home business owner on the trouble they were having getting into the whole Twitter thing. The article was interesting enough as a sharing of perspective but what interested me even more was the comments that followed.

Now I've seen this happen other places, but as the day progressed and more and more comments rolled into to my email notices, I was struck by two things.

The first... at how successful this article was at generating 'heat' from the community in the form of comments. There is a lesson in that and I might have to ponder that a bit more to isolate what that lesson is. Secondly, how willing people are to form opinions - and share them! - with the most scant information to hand.

Now I'm all for people choosing the networks and applications that suit them, but let's be clear here. We don't pick up many things straight off the bat. And less often do we do things very well, without gaining some experience. We try, we stumble and we keep trying and get better at it. If that were not true, we'd none of us be wearing shoes with laces, or even walking for that matter. And yet I don't see many 30 year olds crawling to work on their hands and knees.

Twitter may or may not be something that you need. But here's what you do need. What we all need. A mind that is open to explore and understand, before making snap judgements. It's been said that opinions are like ... well things we all have. That doesn't mean they need to be shown in public.

All this reminds me that Iggy Pintado's book Connection Generation is critical reading for anyone who is engaging in today's community in any way at all. Techie or technophobe, read it to understand some of the people you'll find around you on any day.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

You may have holes in your shoes, but don't let the people out front know it. Shine the tops.

—Earl Hines (musician)

I happened to be in the city recently and stumbled upon a store that supplies business clothing for men and women. Times have certainly changed since the only uniform shops sold blue workman's pants, overalls and steel-cap boots.

This store was quite interesting to me, they had a great range, classic pieces, that would be well received in business or smart dressing after work. Great because the items were all priced to the market and no more and in many cases cheaper than the department store Usual Suspects charge. The department stores of course, don't always have stock that is quite right for the business environment.

And I got to thinking about corporate dress and how that has improved over time, and what the situation is in small business.

Quite different.

There are so many areas that small business struggles with compared to corporate businesses. In corporations, systems (good or otherwise) are a standard part of doing business. Not so in small business.

Struggling with running a business without beginning with a good system in place, means that there is always going to be stress related directly to that lack of a systemic approach, and managing the inevitable crises that happen, in addition to the day-to-day stuff that has to happen. The stress plays out for the owner of the business, the staff of the business, and commonly, the customers of the business. Many times it affects the financial wellbeing of the business too.

Attending to planning and strategic issues is often regarded as "not important" as the customer complaining on the phone. There can be a disconnect with what's vital in the business, for it's long term health - and the actually petty but urgent "must fix this now" stuff. Stuff that exists very often, because there are no good systems to deal with it!

Dress for business is an area that gets less attention than most. And yet that whole way that we present our business - our printed material, our online presence, how we answer the phone and how we dress - all communicate with our customers what we think of our business and them and what we think of ourselves.

Really, it is time for small business to lift it's game and start presenting to the world as a business - not like amateurs playing at running a business.

Stand up and be counted as serious contenders.

How do you approach dress in your business? Your feedback is most appreciated.

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Small Business articles. Find ideas to help you develop your business and personal development. Topics to make to make you think, explore ideas and DO!.Find tips, how-to articles to help you in business and life. - Lindy Asimus Newcastle NSW Australia
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